Due to growing health consciousness, various techniques concerning an activity meter have been developed today (see, for example, Patent Literature 1).
Examples of the activity meter encompass (i) an activity meter capable of measuring information such as a consumed calorie, the number of steps, exercise intensity (METS), and quality of sleep and (ii) an activity meter capable of controlling a PC (personal computer), a smartphone, or a given server to store daily data on the information.
An activity meter includes a device (e.g., a vibrator, a buzzer, an LCD, an LED, etc.) for notifying a user of various kinds of information. There also exists an activity meter which periodically notifies a user of information regarding an activity amount.
Such an activity meter has an advantage of improving user's awareness regarding an activity amount of the user.
There have recently been known activity meters that (i) a user wears on his/her wrist or waist and (ii) measures a daily activity amount (the number of steps, a consumed calorie, etc.) of the user.
Patent Literature 2 discloses a number-of-steps measuring device for (i) measuring (a) the number of steps in accordance with a walking event which has been detected and (b) a walking timing which is information regarding time at which the walking event occurs and (ii) wirelessly transmitting, to an external wireless communication device, the number of steps and the walking timing which have been thus measured. According to the number-of-steps measuring device disclosed in Patent Literature 2, the wireless communication device can (i) carry out walking estimation in accordance with the number of steps and the walking timing which have been received from the number-of-steps measuring device and (ii) display the number of steps thus estimated. Therefore, even in a case where the number of steps and the walking timing are less frequently transmitted from the number-of-steps measuring device to the wireless communication device, it is still possible to update a count of the number of steps so that the count is similar to what is experienced by the user.
Patent Literature 3 discloses a pedometer capable of (i) counting a plurality of pieces of data on the number of steps which plurality of pieces of data are accumulated for respective periods and (ii) starting or stopping counting any one of the plurality of pieces of data on the number of steps. According to the pedometer disclosed in Patent Literature 3, it is possible to accurately measure data on the number of steps which data is desired by a wearer of the pedometer and is among (i) data on the number of steps which data has been accumulated over a plurality of days and (ii) data on the number of steps which has been measured during a predetermined period.
Non-Patent Literature 1 discloses an activity meter which (i) has a stopwatch mode for measuring an activity amount during a specific exercise time and (ii) controls a smartphone to display the activity amount thus measured.
There has conventionally been prevalence of activity meters for measuring a user's exercise amount such as the number of steps, a consumed calorie, and a walking distance.
In recent years, due to growing health consciousness, attention has been increasingly drawn to a system which allows users to share their activities with each other.
For example, Patent Literature 4 discloses a configuration in which it is possible to display, on a display by operating a digital music player (or a mobile phone etc.), (i) exercise data which has been measured by an exercise parameter measuring device of a user and (ii) exercise data which has been measured by an exercise parameter measuring device of another user. With the configuration, Patent Literature 4 makes it possible to compare the exercise data of the user with the exercise data of the another user.
Further, there has conventionally been prevalence of activity meters for measuring a user's exercise amount such as the number of steps, a consumed calorie, and a walking distance. For example, Patent Literature 5 discloses a technique for (i) measuring data on a user's exercise (e.g., walking slowly, walking at normal speed, etc.) and (ii) calculating exercise intensity (METs), a consumed calorie, and the like.
Meanwhile, an activity meter is desired to be small in size and light in weight so that a user can easily wear the activity meter. However, an activity meter which is small in size and light in weight places limitations on functions such as a calculation capability, a memory, and a battery. This makes it difficult to present a user's exercise amount with high accuracy.
In view of this, there has recently been prevalence of mobile devices and systems which are capable of simulating a function of an activity meter by executing an application for calculating a consumed calorie based on a walking distance of a user.
For example, Patent Literature 6 discloses a system for calculating an activity amount based on, for example, user location information which has been obtained by use of GPS.